Today's 33

This article claims that human pollution is good for plants and other living (swamp) things!

Garbage mounds left by prehistoric humans might have driven the formation of many of the Florida Everglades' tree islands, distinctive havens of exceptional ecological richness in the sprawling marsh that are today threatened by human development.

Tree islands are patches of relatively high and dry ground that dot the marshes of the Everglades. Typically a meter (3.3 feet) or so high, many of them are elevated enough to allow trees to grow. They provide a nesting site for alligators and a refuge for birds, panthers, and other wildlife.

Bonus human pollution 33:

Minuscule quantities of the radioactive isotope xenon-133 were detected by sensors in Washington state Wednesday and Thursday and in Sacramento, Calif., on Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency and federal Department of Energy said in a joint statement issued Friday.

“The origin was determined to be consistent with a release from the Fukushima reactors in northern Japan,” the statement said.